


Frozen in Place

by Cookies_and_Chaos



Category: Cavendish and Walker — Sally Rigby
Genre: Gen, Panic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28155447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Chaos/pseuds/Cookies_and_Chaos
Summary: Whitney pushes herself to keep her personal business out of work but emotions have a way of overwhelming you when you least expect it. Written for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020, Day 5, "Five Flowing Waters"
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1
Collections: 12 Days of Christmas Challenge 2020





	Frozen in Place

It never stopped. Even when her eyes hurt from staring at the way it distorted everything behind it, the water just kept flowing. The rush of water was the only thing she could hear, though mere seconds before she could have sworn that she heard people talking outside and the drilling of the work being done in the corridor. Even that can't block out the noise inside her own head.

Someone would come in any minute now and Whitney would need to turn the tap off, smile, and pretend that everything was okay before throwing herself back into the case. The victims deserved her full attention. Everyone else needed her to stay focused. So why couldn't she release the death grip on the sides of the sink and just turn the _fucking_ tap off.

Getting angry had always worked in the past. If you got angry enough, you could get past just about anything. There was a reason Whitney had a reputation for hot-headedness and speaking out of turn to her superiors and it wasn't just because she thought the hierarchy of the force was largely bullshit. Anger was a tool that you could use to rally your final reserves and push through one last time to get the case closed. She'd done it before but no matter how much she tried to tap into that anger, all she got back was overwhelming grief.

Everything was changing and she couldn't deny what was happening any longer. Her mother was ill and even before they'd confirmed Alzheimer's, Whitney had known. She'd known. And that change meant Rob couldn't live at home anymore so his world had to change too and Whitney knew she wasn't explaining things in a way that made sense to him, and because of that he thought he was being punished for something he'd done wrong. Perhaps if she had more time...God, what she wouldn't give for just a little more time.

How much time did she have anyway? Until her mother started to forget who she and Rob were. Before Rob started to resent her for ripping him out of the home he loved. Before this killer struck again and another life was lost on a train into Lenchester, leaving ripples of panic that could no longer be contained.

However much time she had, she was wasting it, staring at a stream of water that she just couldn't bring herself to turn off.

A hand wrapped around the tap and twisted. A few final drops and then silence. Whitney hadn't even heard the door.

"It's okay." One of George's hands gripped one of hers tightly and slowly pulled it from the sink. Once that was done, Whitney felt like she could move again. She snatched her other hand up and stepped back, as though at any second the sink might draw her back in.

"You're okay." George said and Whitney hoped to God she was right.

"I..." Whitney closed her eyes and composed herself, though what the point was now when George had seen her so vulnerable, she didn't know. "Any news?"

"Matt's got something."

Back into the fray it was.


End file.
